The canning of food product comprising food chunks of fruit, vegetables or the like, such as peaches, pineapple, or potatoes immersed in any suitable compatible liquid, such as fruit juice, vegetable juice or water, is well known in the art.
An unsophisticated manual technique known in the industry for canning such food product involves placing an empty can in a vertical position, and then manually filling the can with food chunks to a visually observed level. Another manual canning technique involves placing an empty can in a slightly inclined position, and then manually filling the can with food chunks to a level where the food chunks begin to fall out of the can. Each can filled with food chunks by either of the aforementioned techniques is then retained or moved into a vertical orientation and tapped on a horizontal support to settle the food chunks. A liquid is then introduced into the cans to a visually observed level. The cans are sealed and then subjected to a sterilization operation.
A serious problem presented with either manual canning technique is that it is impossible to consistently fill the cans with the same volume of food product containing food chunks and liquid, and hence to consistently obtain a constant volume of food product per can having a constant ratio of food chunks to liquid. Accordingly, what is achieved by the manual canning techniques is minimal control of the volume of food product per can or of the ratio of food chunks to liquid per can. The problem is compounded with the use of flexible containers, such as bags, rather than cans, since the aforementioned manual canning techniques are not applicable to flexible containers and hence not even a minimal control of the volume of food product per flexible container or ratio of food chunks to liquid per flexible container is achievable.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 837,512, filed Mar. 7, 1986, and now abandoned, by the assignee of the present invention, apparatus is disclosed for dispensing to a container filling machine a supposedly predetermined volume of a solid food chunks/liquid mixture presumably having a predetermined ratio of food chunks to liquid. In the previously disclosed apparatus, food chunks at a desired sterilization temperature exit the separator through a valve at a non-uniform rate, and are joined with a supposedly predetermined volume of liquid discharged from a catch basin of the separator. The volume of discharged liquid is controlled by a valve which can be set to obtain a supposedly desired volumetric ratio of food chunks to liquid, such as 3:1, for example. One of the problems with this metering apparatus is that the food chunks and liquid each flow at a non-uniform rate, and hence it is impossible with this apparatus to dispense a repetitive, precise, consistent volume of food chunk/liquid mixture having a constant predetermined ratio of food chunks to liquid.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a metering apparatus for repetitively dispensing a constant predetermined volume of a food chunk/liquid mixture having a constant predetermined ratio of food chunks to liquid. The food product is dispensed without damaging the food chunks.